Forum Member Diversity

[redsfan2]

Well redsfan2, let track down our Scotsman by God!!

Said to hell with it and e - mailed him. Not real discrete, but I bet it gets a response.

Now whether it's going to be positive or negative is another matter, but we'll deal with that then.

[BengalszoneBilly]

Well redsfan2, let track down our Scotsman by God!!

Said to hell with it and e - mailed him. Not real discrete, but I bet it gets a response.

Now whether it's going to be positive or negative is another matter, but we'll deal with that then.

Cool! If you wanna walk point on this mission, I'll be in your fire team.

[redsfan2]

Well redsfan2, let track down our Scotsman by God!!

Said to hell with it and e - mailed him. Not real discrete, but I bet it gets a response.

Now whether it's going to be positive or negative is another matter, but we'll deal with that then.

Cool! If you wanna walk point on this mission, I'll be in your fire team.

Actually I carried an M60 machine gun, so I never had to walk point. Since I'm 5'6" as well, I did get to check out a lot of bunkers and tunnels though ....... and that was fun too ..... in a different sort of way. Secondary was field interrogator / translator. Went to language school in Monterey Cal. before shipping over.

How about you ............... What was your MOS ???????

[BengalszoneBilly]

M-60 machine gun huh? Well remind me to never piss you off. No one understands fields of fire more than the "nigger behind the trigger"! Okay folks, don't get all politically correct on me here, I'm just quoting a line from the movie "Full Metal Jacket"! Believe me, it's a term of endearment that I wish I was worthy of, okay!?! And anyone who'll take a .45 auto pistol, and flush Charlie outa his hole just because he's the same size just because he's a "short round" as I am is one bad mutha!!)

The story of my jobs/MOS in the Marines is strange. Go figure, eh? I grew up in Erlanger Kentucky, graduated from Lloyd Memorial High School in 1976, then flunked out of Northern Kentucky University after my first semester. All this is 15 minutes south of the old Riverfront Stadium. The birthplace of the Bengals, and the home of the Big Red Machine. Like I gotta tell you f**kers that.

Even though though the draft had just ended, I enlisted in the Marines, and went through boot camp (Platoon 1003) and graduating in January of 1977 at Parris Island S.C. I was sent to N.A.S. Lakehurst N.J. (Hello Joisey!!) to become a parachute rigger (MOS 6064....MOS stands for "Military Occupational Specialty) At least I got to visit Bruce Springsteens boyhood home while I was there. Also the first place I saw the ocean. So much for this Kentucky boy.

After I became a parachutist and a rigger, meaning I jumped and packed the 'chutes, I got assigned to HMA-169 (Cobra Attack Helicopters) at Camp Pendleton, California. One small problem with these orders. Helicopters don't use parachutes.

Not alot for me to do, is there? Hello guard duty. As you well know redsfan2, EVERY Marines primary job is as a rifle man. And with that in mind, the Marines assigned me the job to do the 1st General Order every military person is required to know:

"To take charge of this post, and all goverment property within view."

Yeah...just saying it seethes excitement...NOT!! So when I was on guard duty, after I got off I started hanging out with the crew chiefs, mechanics and ordinance men. We couldn't go hit the beaches to pick up chicks in southern California until their work was done, so I started helping out with their work, seeing how I really had no real job.

Then something really f**ked up happened. I got kinda good at it. The squadron maintenance officer (Major Walter Coulson) wasn't stupid, and got my MOS modified to include another MOS of mechanic. I didn't think it was legal, but he made it worth my while. Goodbye guard duty. Hello deployment aboard ship. WestPac here I come.

I spent over two years aboard the LPH-3, the U.S.S. Okinawa. What a great ship she was! (She is now decomissioned) Her Captain and crew were a tribute to the brave men of the Navy! I do not put my actions above theirs. What they did to help me and my unit as Marines was completely astonishing! They have my everlasting respect.

My dad spent six whole years in the Navy. Not one single day aboard a ship. I join the Marines and have to end up tellin' my own daddy sea stories. Not all of them good. Or funny...

Remember the failed American Embassy hostages rescue mission in Iran in 1979? My helo squadron was there. (HMM-165, who we were attached to.) We were trying to work with the U.S. Air Force's C-130's, and some special ops CH-53's. Helo's almost identical as ours. We had never worked with them up until that mission. Big mistake on HQ's part. Once it all went to s**t, and we were taking fire, it really turned to s**t.

The Air Force immediately jumped to their default radio freqs, as we Marines did with ours. That means we sure as hell weren't talking to each other. A few pilots panicked, and you saw the aftermath on the cover of Time Magazine.

No fighter cover. No artillery. Nobody to call to for fire support. Nothing but pure a**h***s and elbows. All this s**t going down, and I got less than three month until I'm discharged. A happy camper I'm not at this point. Well I did get out alive. Just those two days of action that earned me the Marine Corps Expeditionary Medal. You probably saw more action than that in Vietnam going out to use the friendly neighborhood straddle trench to take a s**t.

One month later on December 20th, I'm getting married for the first time in Florence, Kentucky.

Now as I look back on that, I'd rather be shot at.

[Kirkendall]

Hey Billy, well I guess anyone else, do you guys play military video games? More specifically, do you guys play Battlefield 1942?

[The Brew Man]

Im currently in real estate advertising sales. Not too flashy but it pays the bills, live in Northern Ky, been a Bengals fan for life. Nice to see the personal side of you guys,,,,

LK

[BengalszoneBilly]

Hey Billy, well I guess anyone else, do you guys play military video games? More specifically, do you guys play Battlefield 1942?

Sure do. Although it's somewhat dated now, my favorite is "The Return To Castle Wolfenstien". I'll have to give 1942 a try though!

[AGrizzlyBaer]

try medal of honor frontline rising sun is bad but frontline is good

[Kirkendall]

I love Metal of Honor, but I play the PC version only because I could never get used to playing with a controller. I need my keyboard and mouse. Wolf is a cool game, there were times when those creatures pop out would scare the be-jesus out of me.

[BengalszoneBilly]

I love Metal of Honor, but I play the PC version only because I could never get used to playing with a controller. I need my keyboard and mouse. Wolf is a cool game, there were times when those creatures pop out would scare the be-jesus out of me.

True. Those controllers suck. Nothing matches the control a mouse and keyboard provide. Joysticks are essential for flight games and simulators, as are steering wheels and pedals are for racing games. My personal favorites I might add.

[Kirkendall]

I highly recommend Battlefield 1942. I have spent half my adult life playing this game, well since 2002 at least when it came out. Basically the premise to cature as many flags as possible. Once you have more than a majority of the other teams flags, you lose less points than your opponent -- hard to explain, you'd have to play it to understand.

Anyway, you can either be fighter pilot, use a tank, any AAV or LAV. Very cool game. I wish they still had a demo out for it, but they don't. I think the game is down to $20. So if you have the dinero available in the account, which at times I never do, check it out if you looking for a new game.

The kicker is that it's all multi-player and must have a high speed connection. If you don't, then I'd suggest not bother to buy it.

[BengalszoneBilly]

hard to explain, you'd have to play it to understand.

The kicker is that it's all multi-player and must have a high speed connection. If you don't, then I'd suggest not bother to buy it.

Josh, is it possible to watch the game play on the net without actually participating? I played the old Duke Nukem that way years ago, but I never tried to just watch. If you played deathmatch, you best be pulling the trigger, and often! That was off of dial up to boot. I've had my cable modem for about 2 years now, and there is no comparision. This thing is even far faster than my buddies saddled with DSL. (Which I tell him stands for "Disappointingly Slow and Lame") He unfortunately lives outside the cable service area. I told him he should go to Satallite.

[redsfan2]

No fighter cover. No artillery. Nobody to call to for fire support. Nothing but pure a**h***s and elbows. All this s**t going down, and I got less than three month until I'm discharged. A happy camper I'm not at this point. Well I did get out alive. Just those two days of action that earned me the Marine Corps Expedionary Medal. You probably saw more action than that in Vietnam going out to use the friendly neighborhood straddle trench to take a s**t.

I rememer that very well, and I kinda thought it was something like you describe. I hate hearing about guys getting hung out to flap in the wind. Taking casualties is an occupational hazard, but I hate it when its because the guys weren't given what they needed to do the job.

Viet Nam was funny. You spent a week being bored to death and then a week being scared to death. I completely dismiss anyone that says he spent time in combat and says he was never scared. He's either lying about being scared .... or about being under fire ...... or he's way crazier than anyone I want to talk to.

One of my buddies who stayed in was in on the final evacuation of Saigon and the embassy. Made several trips on a Huey from ship to shore. Hats off to both you guys. Walking around in a jungle like I did is one thing. Flying into it on purpose is another. That is what we used to call some pretty hairy s**t.

One of the longest ones I was in was when a company of sappers came into our ville looking for our squad. ( this was when I was with a CAP unit ) They walked into our ambush at 10 minutes to 12 midnight ( I was getting off watch at 12 ) and they didn't break contact till daylight. We had 80 mm mortars firing lumination for us all night cause every time it went dark they tried to overrun our positions. Lot of grenades .... single shots .... and rpg's. Machine guns and automatic fire gave off too much muzzle flash and let everybody know where you were.

We were very lucky that night. We had one guy slightly wounded in our squad .... one of the pf's ( popular forces ) took a hit from shrapnel, One guy with a sprained ankle , and I got hit with flying debris. We were limping around for a few days, and I looked like somebody had beat the hell out of me but that was it. They sent a rifle company down to our ville as soon as it was light to relieve us, and they couldn't believe it. They thought we were all going to be dead when they got there. The next time I got back to the hill where the base was, I made a stop to thank everyone of the guys in the mortars. They literally saved our ass that night, and I wanted to make sure they knew we appreciated it. Sometimes ..... a lot of times, they'd fire missions and never know what was going on or what it had been about. I wanted them to know what they had done for us.

Ever heard the difference between a war story and a fairy tale ???????????

A fairy tale begins Once upon a time, and a war story begins And this is no s**t

[Boobie Clark]

I graduated from Deer Park High in Cincy (1984), went to Wilmington College for awhile, joined the Navy for 9 years as a combat photographer stationed with jar heads on an amphib, been out for 10 years this September. Wanted to go to Central/South America to be a photo journalist - got married instead. It's all combat one way or the other!

Currently work as a Geographic Information Specialist for RBF Consulting - a civil engineering firm in north Phoenix.

[redsfan2]

I graduated from Deer Park High in Cincy (1984), went to Wilmington College for awhile, joined the Navy for 9 years as a combat photographer stationed with jar heads on an amphib, been out for 10 years this September. Wanted to go to Central/South America to be a photo journalist - got married instead. It's all combat one way or the other!

Currently work as a Geographic Information Specialist for RBF Consulting - a civil engineering firm in north Phoenix.

That is fascinating. Were your photos used in publications ?? for training or intel ,????? or you have no idea what they were used for ????

We had photogs around us a lot, but they were correspondents. Sounds crazy, but I would have got out of Nam and went right back as a combat photographer if I could have. Too old for that crap now, but back then it would have been one of my dream jobs.

[Boobie Clark]

That is fascinating. Were your photos used in publications ?? for training or intel ,????? or you have no idea what they were used for ????

We had photogs around us a lot, but they were correspondents. Sounds crazy, but I would have got out of Nam and went right back as a combat photographer if I could have. Too old for that crap now, but back then it would have been one of my dream jobs.

Wasn't Al Gore a journalist over there? You guys should have shot his ass while you had the chance.

My photos were published in several places. Many went to the Pentagon. It wasn't all fun-n-games. When we had down-time we had to do other shoots - like take pictures of clap-infested, log-pole size peckers after leaving Subic Bay. (Got to love the PI - love it long time.) Those went to D.C. as well; nice color, glossy 8x10.

The Soviets were our targets in the late 80s, Saddam in the early 90s. Flew many missions around Soviet ships to gather intel, over beach heads to help the Marines plan assaults and spent some time in the jungle. Most of the time I didn't know where the photos went or what they were used for. Worked with an F-14 squadron in the Gulf. Helped get aerial recon for retaliation in '93 after the Iraqis tried to hit Bush I. We bombed an intel center and some other stuff. Lots of other Spook crap. It was cool though.

[BengalszoneBilly]

[Wasn't Al Gore a journalist over there? You guys should have shot his ass while you had the chance.

Now that's impossible. He said he was too busy inventing the internet!!

[redsfan2]

Never heard about Gore being over there. Could've been I guess ......... sob's done everything else, so that wouldn't surprise me either.

We had one guy with our company ........ not my platoon though that was pretty well known. I don't remember his name and never really even got that close to the man, but I do remember the officers talking with him a lot and giving him the celebrity treatment.

The diseased johnsons must've been fun. I have an associates in photography, and I did my internship at a hospital in the medical photography department. Most of my work was processing and mounting slides that the Dr.'s used in their presentations. ( it's a teaching hospital ) Lot of darkroom work etc. that the regular guys didn't want to do. I was in on an autopsy ....... had to assist with shooting a blown aorta, and a couple of times in the burn unit. Some of that would test the old gag reflex too. Did learn a lot though.

I'd still like to get into it at some level one of these days, but to tell the truth I couldn't afford the pay cut right now. Not a lot of guys are willing to haul what we do, so they compensate pretty well. It's not so much that I'm in love with my job, but I have gotten pretty used to the pay. Wouldn't it be great to have both ?? ............. like say ....... a pro athlete ??????

[Boobie Clark]

I tried to get on with the FBI's forensic lab after leaving the Navy. They wouldn't take me since I didn't have a degree. I had the right clearance and experience but no dice. Really wanted to lay into the guy but thought it not a good idea to piss off the FBI!!

Blown aorta. Wow, that must have been cool - well, maybe not for the subject. Triage was probably the worst thing I've ever done. Don't mean to be crude or make light, but once they're dead...it's the ones who live that haunt my memories. Some of the stuff I did and saw changed my life forever.

As far as Gore goes, in the last election they talked about his service. There was much debate about what he actually did, but most people said he was well behind the lines and had some bodyguards - since his daddy was a Senator back then. Don't know what the truth is. To be fair, when I was in the bush they always sent a couple Marines along. You can't shoot a gun and a camera at the same time!!

[redsfan2]

I tried to get on with the FBI's forensic lab after leaving the Navy. They wouldn't take me since I didn't have a degree. I had the right clearance and experience but no dice. Really wanted to lay into the guy but thought it not a good idea to piss off the FBI!!

Blown aorta. Wow, that must have been cool - well, maybe not for the subject. Triage was probably the worst thing I've ever done. Don't mean to be crude or make light, but once they're dead...it's the ones who live that haunt my memories. Some of the stuff I did and saw changed my life forever.

As far as Gore goes, in the last election they talked about his service. There was much debate about what he actually did, but most people said he was well behind the lines and had some bodyguards - since his daddy was a Senator back then. Don't know what the truth is. To be fair, when I was in the bush they always sent a couple Marines along. You can't shoot a gun and a camera at the same time!!

They liked me at the hospital well enough. I didn't pass out in the morgue. They have a residency clause though that I couldn't get around. I would have moved the family into the area, but there was that pay thing again. It got decent after you were there a while, but in the mean time it was lean.

As to crude, the guys I worked around had some serious gallows humor. One of them was looking at a strip of neagtives one day when I went in, and he just said " I always heard that chicken soup was good for you ". I said ..... yeah .. I heard the same thing. He hands me the strip and says " I guess you have to drink it and not wear it. " The photos were from the burn unit. A guy got drenched in boiling soup and I'm sure you can guess the results. Great way to start the day. Somehow you just don't want that toasted bagel anymore.

Stand to reason that they'd send you some security. An added problem is that you tend to feel shielded by the camera somehow and really do need somebody looking out for you. I was never in a combat situation obviously, but I did do some shooting around a couple of the abortion clinics up here during demonstrations and I felt insulated from everything as long as I was taking the shots. I can only assume that you got into the same mindset in your situations.

[BengalszoneBilly]

Well it's been about 2 weeks since we've had any additional entries in this thread, and in that time we've had quite a few new members here at the Bengalszone forum. Would any of our new people like to contribute a little about themselves, as alot of others have already done?

[bengalboy]

I'm a ramp worker for a major airline. Lucky for me , I had enough seniority to survive 9/11. Airlines are still using this tragic event to lay off its employees and line their own pockets. George Bush is no friend of mine. Shame on you W. Shame on you John McCain. Transportation secretary Elaine Chow you bitch. No union, no peace.

[BengalszoneBilly]

I'm a ramp worker for a major airline. Lucky for me , I had enough seniority to survive 9/11. Airlines are still using this tragic event to lay off its employees and line their own pockets. George Bush is no friend of mine. Shame on you W. Shame on you John McCain. Transportation secretary Elaine Chow you bitch. No union, no peace.

Yo!! I used to work for Continental Airlines and then America West Airlines as a lead technician in Las Vegas!! My brother works the ramp at the Greater Cincinnati Airport for Delta!! You're living in a tough industry at the moment.

[UKstripes]

Hello everyone, sorry I've been posting without introducing myself first.. I have to admit I never scrolled down further than the first 5 boards!

Going from Billy's prompt let me first point out that the "UK" refers to the United Kingdom as opposed to the University of Kentucky.. sorry if I caused any confusion. I'm a final year law student in Wales, from an Irish family living in England.

How did I become a Bengals fan? Refusing to go to bed when my parents told me to back in 1988. Some guy called Mick Luckhurst was on the tv presenting a sports show and it happened to be American football.. saw Randall Cunningham leading the Eagles, but was drawn more by a guy wearing #33 (in a wicked black shirt with a tiger-striped helmet) committing GBH on everything that moved.. followed David Fulcher from that point on and fell in love with a team who had a 12-year old convinced they were possessed by the spirits of real tigers. I've watched a lot of superbowls since then but XXIII will always be the one I remember with clarity. It hurt to see my tigers lose, even if it was to a team of classy, talented individuals (Ronnie Lott stood out for me.)

I kinda lost touch with the game in the early 90's as the tv coverage in the UK petered out, but got back into it when I went to uni and signed up to play for the Cardiff Cobras in 2001. We watch sunday night football in the bar that sponsors our team and don't you know the Bengals were back were I'd left them.. sure there were some new faces but straight away I felt that warm glow that only orange and black can provide. I know it won't sit well with all of you but the two guys that stood out for me were Corey Dillon and Takeo Spikes.

So now I play Defensive End for a uni side in the british collegiate league (but i'm 6'1 and 195lbs!) and I ocassionally dabble in my first love, rugby union. But on a sunday night I'm watching skysports and I'm telling people "You listen to Chad Johnson. When he says 'i guarantee we will beat Kansas City.' you can be damn sure there's a pack of tigers out there gonna back him up." Loved that game. Loved it.

BTW my Cobras team played a re-arranged playoff game today (rained off last weekend). We won 8-0, with four sacks, two picks and two forced fumbles. My housemate blocked a field goal too. Follow us on www.bcafl.org and www.eteamz.com/cardiffcobras .

WHO DEY?

[BengalszoneBilly]

Stripey...If that ain't one HELL of a good story, I don't know what is! Thanks for filling us in!!